Is your heart on fire with love for God? - Daily Reflections October 23,2014

FIRE ON EARTH

 

Back in the day when environmental awareness was far from everyone’s mind, every camping trip would be incomplete without the obligatory campfire. I should know. I worked for Catholic Scouting as a young priest before I got hooked on formation work. Everyone knows how a bonfire could help warm you up on a cold windy night up in Mount Kanlaon, for example, or even at the foothills of Makiling in Laguna. A bonfire, however, does not just warm you up physically; it also warms up the heart and fuels the drive for greater fellowship and deeper camaraderie. But above all, it could set people on fire with a burning desire to go down to the plains and apply what one learned over a few days of fun-filled training.

       Fire, too, is powerful beyond belief. It can be destructive and constructive at the same time. It can raze even good things to the ground but can purify everything in its path. Used rightly and well, the devouring flames could obliterate or cancel out all things negative and undesirable.

       This is precisely the idea behind the process of purifying even precious metals. They can only be freed from dross and other impurities by subjecting them to fire and heat. And what comes out is pure, refined gold or silver.

       Our recent history has shown that “business as usual” cannot, and does not, work. Being laid back, being unconcerned about the burning issues of our days, being oblivious of the multiplicity of ideologies and forces that take contemporary culture of postmodernity by storm, do not make the Church’s presence in the world efficacious and fruitful. We need to do more. We need to intensify our evangelizing efforts. We cannot just sit by and watch how showbiz culture gradually, but surely, pulls the rug from under our feet and co-opt young people to its manipulative ways.

         We need to allow the Lord to not only warm our hearts with good intentions. We need to set fire on earth and do our part in the Church’s call to new evangelization. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Is your heart on fire with love for God?

 

Send Your Holy Spirit, Lord, and enkindle my heart with love for You and Your people.